"I believe their corruption issue could be solved through UN-imposed embargos.."

and i'm a firm believer that embargo never solved any such problems. look at north korea, a country can starve to death, and leaders still refuse to give in. on the contrary, i believe that an embargo hurts the people most, and gives excuse for leaders to establish harsh anti-liberal "wartime" measures.

on the other hand, free trade helps to integrate the people in the world economy. and as people change, their possibilities change, their horizons change, so change politics.

Apr 16 2012:
thats a very good point. however, i feel as if the word has been spread. people know about the high levels of corruption; there is just nothing being done about it. It's a complex issue, yes, but I feel as if anything can be tackled. Any ideas?

Apr 16 2012:
eeer, wait. how could we find sources to cite about an event that haven't happened yet? can we cite a future teller orb? nobody on the world is an expert of how to get rid of corruption, or if there is, his track record is pathetic. how to fight corruption is an ongoing debate, and honestly, i haven't seen any convincing result so far. even the much easier question of what the causes of corruption are is very complex, and i believe largely unanswered.

Apr 16 2012:
good, but how to achieve that? it is rather obvious that transparency is a perfect solution, it is democratic, it does not hurt freedom. but who will implement it? surely not a corrupt government.

Apr 16 2012:
Nigeria is in attempts of being a democratic government (though it is running off of a uni-party system), and complaints from the Nairaland forum are rampant. I believe their corruption issue could be solved through UN-imposed embargos.. as Nigeria works off of oil-rents and exports, this would pain such a corrupt government to try and enact change.

I'm a firm believer in money being a changing factor; be it trade embargos or foreign aid retainment.

Apr 17 2012:
Zdenek, what do you think of this? It is a counter-argument to my trade-embargo idea; a more humane pathway I suppose:

If the United Nations were to put their foot down and decree that Nigeria is to not be given foreign aid unless their political leadership became transparent in their financial spending down to the single naira, corruption would become very difficult to preserve. The UN must participate in the sanctioning of this decree; hiring a third-party group (using part of Nigeria’s proposed foreign aid injection) to fully evaluate the finances of Nigeria for an extended period of time. This third-party group could later hire Nigerian citizens with basic mathematical or accounting skills in order to teach them as permanent watchdogs of the Nigerian government. All participants must be paid handsomely in order to hamper the possibility of being bribed. All interactions with governing members of Nigeria must be watched closely to ensure the forestalling of bribery and all finances being accounted for. Even if this sounds like an expensive, lengthy, and drastic step, it is a necessary one for Nigeria to move forward and away from the plague of monetary corruption.

Apr 16 2012:
I appreciate the input. I too agree that Nigeria must work on this themselves; unfortunately there are already so many hands in Nigeria's pot. Some have suggested splitting the country up based on their ethnic groups as per the Sudanese example.